Successful mentoring begins with the foundational effort to establish a relationship between mentor(s) and mentee(s). These efforts include time spent on setting the stage, identifying needs and defining expectations.

Setting the stage

Setting the stage occurs once the mentee(s) and mentor(s) have paired. This stage builds the foundation for the mentoring relationship, including defining a mutual vision and goals, a plan and timeline to achieve these goals (with criteria for measuring success), and clarifying expectations of each other.

You may already have thought about these questions in assessing readiness for mentorship, but here are some explicit questions for you to consider in your initial conversations as you establish your mentoring relationship:

• Why did you first get into teaching?
• What aspects of teaching most appeal to you?
• What do you find challenging in teaching?
• What are your future teaching and learning goals?
• What experiences and people have most influenced your aspirations to become a teacher?
• What do we have in common as teachers?
• What vision do we share for teaching and learning development?
• What vision do we share for our mentoring relationship?
• In what ways are you satisfied with your progress in teaching and learning?
• What do you have to do in the next five years as you work towards your long-term professional teaching and learning goals?
• Have you had to face and overcome barriers in your teaching practice?
• In what ways are you dissatisfied with your progress in teaching and learning and what would you like to develop?
• Do any aspects of your teaching practice make you anxious?
• What groups might you join or what people might you get to know for development in the areas you have identified as most important?
• What steps do you need to take to make contact with such groups or people?
• What networks are you engaged in that help you with your teaching and learning interests?

Identify Needs

Strong, mutually beneficial mentoring relationships are built when there is clarity about the needs of both mentee and mentor. Initial conversations should explore the needs and expectations of all involved in the mentoring relationship. These open and honest discussions will become particularly important when the members of a mentoring relationship do not know one another before entering their relationship. Dedicating time and space for discussion will reduce the chance that the relationship fails to meet the needs and expectations of all involved.

To help you in this process, Appendix B contains a mentorship plan that you can complete with all members of your mentoring relationship during initial conversations. Feel free to modify this plan to best meet your needs. It is also good practice to return to your plan at different points in the relationship and examine whether any of its parameters should change as your needs change or evolve.

Behavior

Successful mentoring begins with commitments from both mentors and mentees to establish and build their relationships. Engaging in an authentic manner, being honest in acknowledging what you can offer and being transparent about your limitations helps foster trust. It is important to be realistic regarding areas of expertise and to recognize that other mentors may be needed to meet all the identified needs. Mentoring from a place of humility creates a space for both mentees and mentors to garner benefits. Recognizing that engaging in mentoring relationships can expose vulnerability, it is important that mentees and mentors are mutually respectful and maintain confidentiality.

Although mentoring relationships may evolve over time (i.e., by becoming friendships), it is important to initially consider expectations surrounding time commitment.

Define Expectations

Previous mentoring partnership experiences will influence expectations, so it would be valuable to discuss perceptions surrounding mentoring (including behavior, communication and accountability).

• Is this relationship being envisioned as short-term or long-term?
• How frequently will we meet?
• Is there space for drop-in to manage suddenly emerging teaching challenges that require immediate debriefing?

Communication

Clear communication between mentors and mentees goes a long way to helping sustain relationships and contributing to their success. Purposefully establishing communication frequency and outlining clear plans detailing expectations around response and preparation will help promote success. It is important to consider coming up with a strategy for managing conflict, miscommunication or any possible communication breakdowns. Mentees have often been hesitant to “bother” their mentors with “silly questions” when their mentors are obviously such busy people. Conversely, mentors who were not being asked for help did not want to interfere in their mentees’ lives by seeming pushy, and thus did not contact their mentees without express invitation. This concern for mentoring partners’ freedom, time and independence can lessen the impact and usefulness of mentoring relationships.

It is important for you to be proactive in your relationships with mentors and peers so that your needs and expectations are met. Mentees need to share their questions and concerns through effective communication, so that mentors can fulfill their responsibilities. In addition to discussing if mentee and mentor needs are being met or how those needs may have evolved, it is equally important to schedule opportunities for periodic check-ins to address how mentoring relationships are going. Returning to the mentorship plan is a great strategy for accomplishing this.

Accountability

Establishing mentor and mentee accountability evolves from clear understanding of one another’s needs, goals and expectations. Clearly articulating goals, outlining strategies to achieve them and assessing their effectiveness helps both mentors and mentees outline responsibilities associated with mentoring relationships.

Being intentional in planning helps mitigate losing perspective and interest over time, in addition to managing challenges associated with a lack of time. Ongoing reflection around long-term teaching goals and identifying changing mentorship needs are important for both mentees and mentors.

It is important to recognize that some mentoring relationships that have been successful and beneficial for both mentees and mentors naturally end. Achieving closure around the mentoring relationship and debriefing successes and challenges informs future mentorship involvement. It is also important to consider that some mentoring relationships progress into friendship. As the mentoring relationship evolves, it is essential to be transparent and discuss what the mentoring will look like and how it will be navigated within the friendship.

Outlining responsibility associated with the relationship relies on both mentors and mentees taking active roles in developing mentoring relationships. What do all members in these relationships hope to accomplish? Below is an example of different activities that teaching and learning mentoring partners can accomplish together.

• Develop long and short-term teaching goals.
• Develop a teaching philosophy.
• Prepare a teaching dossier.
• Review and co-design syllabi and lesson plans.
• Foster connections within departments and across teaching and learning communities locally, nationally and internationally.
• Discuss challenges in teaching and classroom management.
• Apply for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grants.
• Identify avenues to obtain further professional development.
• Share and/or co-create teaching rubrics, assessments and teaching strategies.
• Foster a self-reflective practice.
• Explore new teaching initiatives.
• Share constructive criticism and use feedback wisely.

adapted from “The Mentorship Guide for Teaching and Learning,” by Barrette-Ng et al,  Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary, shared with a CC BY NC 4.0 license.